The Razing of One of the World's Wildest Places

The vast and almost impenetrable plains of the Gran Chaco ("Big Hunting Ground") spread from Northern Argentina
in a low, sweltering swath through parts of Paraguay, Bolivia, and
Brazil. Though the admittedly more charismatic Amazon gets all the
attention, the Chaco is the second-largest forest on the continent, and
even more remote, covered with dry tropical forest thick with thorn
trees, cactus, and dozens—perhaps hundreds—of endemic species as yet
unknown to science.

The few travelers who make their way into its solitude, most with tour operators based in Buenos Aires, Asunción, or La Paz, compare it to the Australian outback.